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Amateur Appliance Repairman

August 10, 2022 We dodged a bit of a bullet recently with our dishwasher. For the past few weeks, it had been acting up, where we would go to start a cycle and the door wouldn’t lock, so the dishwasher wouldn’t start. Our work around was to unplug the dishwasher cord, let it sit for a minute or so, and then plug it back in. Although inconvenient, it was happening intermittently and the thought of a new dishwasher wasn’t too appealing – both from a cost standpoint, but we also really do like the dishwasher we have (when it works).This week it finally gave up – no matter what we tried I couldn’t get the dishwasher to start a cycle. Although I would like to think I am a handy person, never having worked on a kitchen appliance before, my first reaction was to call an appliance repairman. I first called an appliance store who sells new appliances, services appliances and sells parts for appliances – I struck out here as they only service appliances that they sold, and we didn’t purchase our dishwasher through them. I then decided to call a company who only services appliances. As luck would have it, I got message that they were not accepting new appointments until a few weeks out. With the prospect of handwashing our dishes for a family of four being fairly daunting I decided to turn to the collective wisdom of the internet – I Googled it.Armed with the model number of my dishwasher, after search about a half an hours’ worth of forums, owner’s manuals and technician manuals I came to find out there was a simple test that I could run on the dishwasher to determine what the issue is. It seems that all new appliances come with computer chips on them, so after pressing a specific sequence of the dishwashers buttons the display flashed a code and a sequence of flashing lights to identify the issue – the computer board was bad (which also seemed to be the consensus of the forums based on the issue we were experiencing). Luckily removing the computer board only took the removal of a few screws and unplugging a couple electrical connections.Returning to Google to search for a replacement part (as I did call the aforementioned appliance store – and they didn’t stock the part I needed) I was able to find on Amazon, complete with next day delivery available on Prime. Once the part arrived, in about 15 minutes the dishwasher was back up and running.All in all, I think I lucked out when I initially couldn’t find a repairman; the dishwasher likely got fixed much quicker than I may have gotten scheduled otherwise and I am positive for much cheaper. The moral of this experience being, if you have time and are able spend a little time researching a purchase or service and it may end up saving you some time and money. You might also be interested in As the year comes to a close, so does Season 14 of Project Money. In preparation for writing our final blog post we reflected over what has occurred over... In the last week we had to take Robin’s car, a 2019 VW Atlas, in for a couple of recall notices we had received. Nothing completely out of the ordinary... One of the topics we had mentioned in our posts from earlier this year was an employee stock purchase plan offered by Robin’s employer. We have never participated... Being part of Project Money has pushed our family to take a more active role in managing our finances, necessitating weekly conversations that have spurred... With Thanksgiving behind us, the countdown to Christmas has “officially” begin. This year, as part of our Project Money journey, we have been planning... I had been putting this off for a few weeks/months now, optimistic that Fall might stretch on a little bit longer – but this past week’s winter weather... Over the last few weeks, we have been working to refocus, and get back to some of the basics as we start to head into the end of year holiday season... Over the past few weeks and months, I had seen several news reports about I Bonds, usually with a corresponding endorsement of their attractiveness as... We have reached the point of the year where we have one foot firmly planted into heating season and thought we would reflect on what energy saving tips...